'Beauty and the Beast' debut weekend earnings revised up

Disney's live-action "Beauty and the Beast" was an even bigger hit than first thought.

The film's weekend box office earnings were revised up nearly $5 million from estimates Sunday. In final figures Monday, Disney said "Beauty and the Beast" made $174.8 million in North American theaters.

The result set numerous records. The film, directed by Bill Condon and starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, is not only easily the biggest hit of 2017 so far, it's the biggest opening for a PG-rated movie, the top debut ever in March and ranks among the top-10 openings ever, not adjusting for inflation.

Analysts expect the film to make $1 billion globally.

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by comScore:

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by 21st Century Fox; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.